PASS Summit East (Chicago)
All Sessions
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Pre-Conference
SQL Server Security vs. Security Theater: Build a Defensible Data Estate
Andreas Wolter
Stop the "Security Theater" and build a truly defensible data platform. This full-day workshop on security for SQL databases (on-prem/Azure/Fabric) is driven by real-world assessments and breach scenarios in the field. Common security recommendations often focus on features like TDE and flagging sysadmin membership, which creates a false sense of security or unnecessary alarmism while leaving actual attack paths ignored. This PreCon focuses on what moves the needle. You will learn how to make the work of an attacker harder, limit the blast radius, and detect attacks earlier – using practical approaches grounded in Zero Trust and operability. Drawing on 25+ years in the field – including leading security feature development for SQL Server and Azure SQL at Microsoft, contributing to the SQL Server 2022 permission model, and advancing vulnerability assessment and Microsoft Purview-based governance capabilities – you’ll get an inside-out view of the built-in security features, how to use them effectively and where there are gaps to consider. Topics include: NTLM deprecation and Kerberos readiness / SQL Server 2025 updates / Applying Least Privilege / Encryption techniques, tamper evidence with Database Ledger / Building a minimal viable security audit, Extended Events vs Auditing / Network- and system security configuration / Fabric OneLake security implications / Microsoft Purview (intro) ..and of course, demos of security bypasses and how to prevent them.
Pre-Conference
SQL Server Security vs. Security Theater: Build a Defensible Data Estate
Andreas Wolter
Sarpedon Quality Lab LLC
Session Goals: • How to apply Zero Trust and least privilege to SQL databases. • Know which security features to employ and what to look out for.
Session Prerequisites: T-SQL basics, fundamental understanding of SQL Server components (SQL Server, Databases SQL Server Agent, on-prem vs Azure SQL)
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 200
Theme: Security
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Thursday -
9:00 AM-5:00 PM -
Room: Jackson Park C
Stop the "Security Theater" and build a truly defensible data platform. This full-day workshop on security for SQL databases (on-prem/Azure/Fabric) is driven by real-world assessments and breach scenarios in the field. Common security recommendations often focus on features like TDE and flagging sysadmin membership, which creates a false sense of security or unnecessary alarmism while leaving actual attack paths ignored. This PreCon focuses on what moves the needle. You will learn how to make the work of an attacker harder, limit the blast radius, and detect attacks earlier – using practical approaches grounded in Zero Trust and operability. Drawing on 25+ years in the field – including leading security feature development for SQL Server and Azure SQL at Microsoft, contributing to the SQL Server 2022 permission model, and advancing vulnerability assessment and Microsoft Purview-based governance capabilities – you’ll get an inside-out view of the built-in security features, how to use them effectively and where there are gaps to consider. Topics include: NTLM deprecation and Kerberos readiness / SQL Server 2025 updates / Applying Least Privilege / Encryption techniques, tamper evidence with Database Ledger / Building a minimal viable security audit, Extended Events vs Auditing / Network- and system security configuration / Fabric OneLake security implications / Microsoft Purview (intro) ..and of course, demos of security bypasses and how to prevent them. -
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Pre-Conference
Adding PostgreSQL to your SQL Server Skill Set
Grant Fritchey
Pat Wright
More organizations are adding PostgreSQL to their technology stack than ever before. The challenge is that they are not immediately replacing their existing technology, which means more and more people need to understand both SQL Server and PostgreSQL. This session is explicitly designed to support people who already know SQL Server in their journey to add PostgreSQL to their skill set. The session covers the areas of overlap between the two platforms, as well as all the differences that can make learning PostgreSQL a challenge. Not only does this all-day session teach PostgreSQL, but it also explores tooling, documentation, the cloud, and other resources to help on the journey of adding PostgreSQL to an existing SQL Server skill set.
Pre-Conference
Adding PostgreSQL to your SQL Server Skill Set
Grant Fritchey
Redgate
Pat Wright
Redgate
Session Goals: • Learn about the differences in language between SQL Server and PostgreSQL. • Understand what's different and unique in how PostgreSQL operates.
Session Prerequisites: General understanding of SQL Server in order to understand the mapping.
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 200
Theme: Cloud + Multi-DB
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Thursday
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9:00 AM-5:00 PM
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Room: Hyde Park B
More organizations are adding PostgreSQL to their technology stack than ever before. The challenge is that they are not immediately replacing their existing technology, which means more and more people need to understand both SQL Server and PostgreSQL. This session is explicitly designed to support people who already know SQL Server in their journey to add PostgreSQL to their skill set. The session covers the areas of overlap between the two platforms, as well as all the differences that can make learning PostgreSQL a challenge. Not only does this all-day session teach PostgreSQL, but it also explores tooling, documentation, the cloud, and other resources to help on the journey of adding PostgreSQL to an existing SQL Server skill set. -
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Pre-Conference
Modern Data Warehousing with Microsoft Fabric
Kristyna Ferris
Chris Hyde
Learn how to design and manage data warehouses in Microsoft Fabric by exploring proven patterns, practical techniques, and common pitfalls to avoid. Topics include dimensional modeling, data warehousing fundamentals, ingestion strategies, medallion architecture, change detection, lifecycle management with CI/CD, monitoring, administration, and migrations.
Pre-Conference
Modern Data Warehousing with Microsoft Fabric
Kristyna Ferris
P3 Adaptive
Chris Hyde
Hydrate Consulting LLC
Session Goals: Attendees will leave the session with a clear understanding of how to design and manage effective warehouses in Fabric, avoid common mistakes, and apply proven techniques that accelerate success in their own environments.
Session Prerequisites: Intended Audience – "Accidental" data warehousing professionals, or those looking for a refresher on the theory and techniques of data warehousing in Fabric. The focus is on data warehouse development and data engineering.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 100
Theme: AI + Data
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Thursday
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9:00 AM-5:00 PM
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Room: Jackson Park D
Learn how to design and manage data warehouses in Microsoft Fabric by exploring proven patterns, practical techniques, and common pitfalls to avoid. Topics include dimensional modeling, data warehousing fundamentals, ingestion strategies, medallion architecture, change detection, lifecycle management with CI/CD, monitoring, administration, and migrations. -
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Pre-Conference
T-SQL That Doesn't Suck: Solving Performance and Concurrency Problems
Erik Darling
You know how to write T-SQL that works. It compiles, it returns rows, nobody's filed an incident yet. But "works" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, and production has a way of finding out what you got away with in dev. In this full-day, demo-packed session, Erik Darling walks you through the T-SQL that silently bleeds your servers dry and shows you how to fix it without rewriting the whole app. You'll tackle the performance killers that don't show up until scale does: implicit conversions, non-sargable predicates, parameter sniffing traps, and joins that look fine in an execution plan until they absolutely aren't. You'll learn when temp tables beat table variables, when CTEs help versus when they just make you feel organized, and how to write window functions that don't spill to tempdb. But performance is only half the fight. We'll dig into concurrency problems that turn a Tuesday into a war room: blocking chains, isolation level surprises, and data modifications that hold locks like they're paying rent. You'll learn DML patterns that play well with others. Along the way, we'll put AI-generated T-SQL on the table. Not to dunk on it, but because it's showing up in pull requests and you need to know where it falls apart and where it saves you time. If you've ever inherited a stored procedure that made you question your career choices, this is your day. Come write T-SQL you'd be proud to put your name on.
Pre-Conference
T-SQL That Doesn't Suck: Solving Performance and Concurrency Problems
Erik Darling
Darling Data
Session Goals: • Recognize and fix performance anti-patterns across joins, predicates, temp objects, CTEs, and window functions. • Understand and resolve concurrency issues including blocking, isolation levels, and lock-friendly DML. • Evaluate AI-generated T-SQL and learn to use AI tools without losing your edge.
Session Prerequisites: You should be comfortable writing T-SQL: SELECT, JOIN, WHERE, GROUP BY, and basic stored procedures. If you can read an execution plan without panicking, you're ready. This session picks up where the fundamentals leave off.
Track: Development
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Thursday
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9:00 AM-5:00 PM
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Room: Jackson Park B
You know how to write T-SQL that works. It compiles, it returns rows, nobody's filed an incident yet. But "works" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, and production has a way of finding out what you got away with in dev. In this full-day, demo-packed session, Erik Darling walks you through the T-SQL that silently bleeds your servers dry and shows you how to fix it without rewriting the whole app. You'll tackle the performance killers that don't show up until scale does: implicit conversions, non-sargable predicates, parameter sniffing traps, and joins that look fine in an execution plan until they absolutely aren't. You'll learn when temp tables beat table variables, when CTEs help versus when they just make you feel organized, and how to write window functions that don't spill to tempdb. But performance is only half the fight. We'll dig into concurrency problems that turn a Tuesday into a war room: blocking chains, isolation level surprises, and data modifications that hold locks like they're paying rent. You'll learn DML patterns that play well with others. Along the way, we'll put AI-generated T-SQL on the table. Not to dunk on it, but because it's showing up in pull requests and you need to know where it falls apart and where it saves you time. If you've ever inherited a stored procedure that made you question your career choices, this is your day. Come write T-SQL you'd be proud to put your name on. -
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General Session
Power BI – How to Fix an Inherited Report
Kristyna Ferris
A common request in the realm of reporting is "hey, we have this report that a previous VIP used, but the report is really slow and the new VIP would like to revamp the report to answer their questions". Great, you think, I can knock this out no problem! Then, you open the report. Fifty tables, over a hundred measures, and six calculated tables later you start to panic. This session will go into best practices for dissecting a complicated report and a checklist for quick wins. No need to panic, this session will help build a toolbelt to tackle any reconstruction project. We are going to cover ways that I leverage AI to dissect reports and aid in the rebuild according to best practices.
General Session
Power BI – How to Fix an Inherited Report
Kristyna Ferris
P3 Adaptive
Session Goals: • Identifying problem areas in PBI. • Leverage AI to optimize existing models. • Checklists to use when optimizing.
Session Prerequisites: Recommend having used Power BI before, come with your questions on how to fix reports that aren't working!
Track: Analytics
Level: Level 200
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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10:30 AM-11:30 AM
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Room: Hyde Park B
A common request in the realm of reporting is "hey, we have this report that a previous VIP used, but the report is really slow and the new VIP would like to revamp the report to answer their questions". Great, you think, I can knock this out no problem! Then, you open the report. Fifty tables, over a hundred measures, and six calculated tables later you start to panic. This session will go into best practices for dissecting a complicated report and a checklist for quick wins. No need to panic, this session will help build a toolbelt to tackle any reconstruction project. We are going to cover ways that I leverage AI to dissect reports and aid in the rebuild according to best practices. -
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General Session
Demystifying SQL Server Security: What Matters in Practice
Andreas Wolter
Join this interactive session for a candid look at what truly drives data security – and what doesn’t. Over more than two decades of real-world and behind-the-scenes experience have shown a consistent pattern: risk rarely stems from missing features, but from misconfigurations, excessive privileges, and misplaced trust in coarse compliance checklists. We’ll explore common security pitfalls and misconceptions, and examine which controls genuinely reduce attack vectors and breach impact versus those that primarily satisfy a checklist. We’ll also highlight opportunities for vendors to strengthen their products, discuss practical steps customers can take to improve their security posture and the impact of AI on data security. The session includes open discussion, focused on separating effective security measures from security theater.
General Session
Demystifying SQL Server Security: What Matters in Practice
Andreas Wolter
Sarpedon Quality Lab LLC
Session Goals: You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of: • What attackers actually exploit. • How to prioritize remediation efforts. • What a defensible security posture really looks like.
Session Prerequisites: Basic security concepts and SQL Server fundamentals.
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 300
Theme: Security
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Friday
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10:30 AM-11:30 AM
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Room: Jackson Park B
Join this interactive session for a candid look at what truly drives data security – and what doesn’t. Over more than two decades of real-world and behind-the-scenes experience have shown a consistent pattern: risk rarely stems from missing features, but from misconfigurations, excessive privileges, and misplaced trust in coarse compliance checklists. We’ll explore common security pitfalls and misconceptions, and examine which controls genuinely reduce attack vectors and breach impact versus those that primarily satisfy a checklist. We’ll also highlight opportunities for vendors to strengthen their products, discuss practical steps customers can take to improve their security posture and the impact of AI on data security. The session includes open discussion, focused on separating effective security measures from security theater. -
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General Session
No Black Box: How Fabric DW Works, Performs, and Gets Monitored Right
Mariya Ali
Most Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse users know what to do — but not what's actually happening beneath the query they just ran. In this session, you'll get a first-hand architectural walkthrough of Fabric DW from the product team that designed and shipped it. We'll start where most sessions don't — the engine itself. How does Fabric DW separate compute from storage using OneLake? What is V-Order optimization, why does it exist, and when does it hurt you instead of help you? How does the concurrency model work across SQL pools, and what are the real-world capacity implications of the choices you make today? From there, we'll move into performance: the patterns that silently kill query throughput, how to read query execution plans in a distributed columnar engine — not in theory, but in a live demo using real warehouse telemetry. Finally, we'll deep-dive into the monitoring and observability stack: Query Insights, Warehouse Insights, SQL Pool Insights, and Query Plan Visualization. You'll leave knowing exactly which DMV-equivalent views surface the signals that matter, how to build proactive alerting, and how enterprise teams — including large healthcare organizations running production workloads — are using these tools to drive meaningful cost reduction and SLA reliability. Whether you're evaluating Fabric, mid-migration, or already in production and hitting walls you don't fully understand, this session gives you the architecture mental model you've been missing.
General Session
No Black Box: How Fabric DW Works, Performs, and Gets Monitored Right
Mariya Ali
Microsoft
Session Goals: • Understand how Fabric DW's architecture drives query performance decisions. • Navigate the full monitoring stack to diagnose production issues fast. • Leave with an observability playbook you can apply on Monday.
Session Prerequisites: Attendees should have working familiarity with SQL and basic data warehousing concepts (tables, schemas, query execution). Prior exposure to Microsoft Fabric is helpful but not required.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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10:30 AM-11:30 AM
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Room: Jackson Park D
Most Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse users know what to do — but not what's actually happening beneath the query they just ran. In this session, you'll get a first-hand architectural walkthrough of Fabric DW from the product team that designed and shipped it. We'll start where most sessions don't — the engine itself. How does Fabric DW separate compute from storage using OneLake? What is V-Order optimization, why does it exist, and when does it hurt you instead of help you? How does the concurrency model work across SQL pools, and what are the real-world capacity implications of the choices you make today? From there, we'll move into performance: the patterns that silently kill query throughput, how to read query execution plans in a distributed columnar engine — not in theory, but in a live demo using real warehouse telemetry. Finally, we'll deep-dive into the monitoring and observability stack: Query Insights, Warehouse Insights, SQL Pool Insights, and Query Plan Visualization. You'll leave knowing exactly which DMV-equivalent views surface the signals that matter, how to build proactive alerting, and how enterprise teams — including large healthcare organizations running production workloads — are using these tools to drive meaningful cost reduction and SLA reliability. Whether you're evaluating Fabric, mid-migration, or already in production and hitting walls you don't fully understand, this session gives you the architecture mental model you've been missing. -
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General Session
A Practical Introduction to Vector Search in SQL Server 2025
Andy Yun
Are you uncertain if SQL Server 2025 Vector Search has useful applications? Concerned that it is just more AI hype? Then join me in this session, where I’ll break down how Vector Search works, where it fits into the AI landscape, and how you can use it today—on-prem and without changing your core architecture. We’ll cover: * The foundations of vector embeddings and similarity search * How SQL Server implements Vector Search, including indexing and querying * Code demos and practical use case exploration You’ll leave armed with the knowledge to look beyond the hype and understand how Vector Search can work for you.
General Session
A Practical Introduction to Vector Search in SQL Server 2025
Andy Yun
Everpure
Session Goals: 1. An understanding of the building blocks of AI – vector embeddings and vector search & RAG architectures 2. Food for thought on how this can be used in a practical fashion and how it's not just hype
Track: Development
Level: Level 100
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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10:30 AM-11:30 AM
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Room: Jackson Park C
Are you uncertain if SQL Server 2025 Vector Search has useful applications? Concerned that it is just more AI hype? Then join me in this session, where I’ll break down how Vector Search works, where it fits into the AI landscape, and how you can use it today—on-prem and without changing your core architecture. We’ll cover: * The foundations of vector embeddings and similarity search * How SQL Server implements Vector Search, including indexing and querying * Code demos and practical use case exploration You’ll leave armed with the knowledge to look beyond the hype and understand how Vector Search can work for you. -
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General Session
Azure SQL Hyperscale: The Cloud Database for the Era of AI
Bob Ward
Azure SQL Hyperscale is often viewed as a niche option for very large or expensive databases. In reality, Hyperscale represents the modern evolution of SQL Server, removing long‑standing limits around scale, performance, and operations while remaining fully SQL compatible. This session explains how Hyperscale’s architecture changes cost and scalability assumptions, dispels common myths, and shows why Hyperscale is the default SQL cloud database for modern applications. We’ll also look at new SQL capabilities—vectors, JSON, REST APIs, and AI agent integration using SQL MCP—without giving up SQL Server fundamentals. Hyperscale isn’t a premium tier for edge cases—it’s how SQL Server evolves for cloud scale, cost efficiency, and AI‑ready applications.
General Session
Azure SQL Hyperscale: The Cloud Database for the Era of AI
Bob Ward
Microsoft
Session Goals: • Learn why Hyperscale is the same as SQL Server but uniquely built for the cloud. • Bust myths about how Hyperscale is priced and works for the smallest to largest databases in the world. • Learn how to take advantage of built-in AI capabilities with Hyperscale.
Session Prerequisites: A fundamental knowledge of SQL Server. A fundamental knowledge of Azure is preferred but not required.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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11:45 AM-12:45 PM
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Room: Jackson Park B
Azure SQL Hyperscale is often viewed as a niche option for very large or expensive databases. In reality, Hyperscale represents the modern evolution of SQL Server, removing long‑standing limits around scale, performance, and operations while remaining fully SQL compatible. This session explains how Hyperscale’s architecture changes cost and scalability assumptions, dispels common myths, and shows why Hyperscale is the default SQL cloud database for modern applications. We’ll also look at new SQL capabilities—vectors, JSON, REST APIs, and AI agent integration using SQL MCP—without giving up SQL Server fundamentals. Hyperscale isn’t a premium tier for edge cases—it’s how SQL Server evolves for cloud scale, cost efficiency, and AI‑ready applications. -
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General Session
The Expansion Mindset: Redefining Career Growth Beyond Promotions
Andrea Kaercher
Data professionals are often told there's one path to career success: climb from analyst to senior analyst, DBA to manager, individual contributor to director. But what if the most powerful growth happens in every other direction? This session challenges narrow career advancement definitions and introduces a practical framework for building success beyond title changes. Many technical professionals face pressure to move into management roles they don't want or feel stuck because promotions are limited. The Expansion Mindset offers an alternative. You'll explore four directions of professional growth: Depth (becoming the irreplaceable PostgreSQL performance expert), Breadth (combining SQL expertise with business intelligence and communication), Influence (shaping data architecture decisions without being the architect), and Integration (designing remote work that fits your life). Through real examples and an interactive planning activity, you'll learn to recognize growth without new titles and translate it into compensation and satisfaction. You'll leave with a personalized expansion plan and frameworks for communicating development during performance reviews and salary negotiations. Perfect for data professionals who want respect, autonomy, and fulfillment without climbing the management ladder. Whether you're a DBA seeking deep expertise or an analyst building cross-functional influence, this session provides strategy to pursue growth on your terms.
General Session
The Expansion Mindset: Redefining Career Growth Beyond Promotions
Andrea Kaercher
Fortified Data
Session Goals: • Identify personal expansion opportunities. • Develop a strategic approach to career growth aligned with personal strengths and circumstances rather than external expectations. • Learn to communicate professional development effectively during performance reviews and salary negotiations
Session Prerequisites: No prior knowledge required. This session is designed for data professionals at any career stage and role; from early-career analysts to experienced DBAs and architects.
Track: Professional Development
Level: Level 100
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Friday
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11:45 AM-12:45 PM
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Room: Hyde Park B
Data professionals are often told there's one path to career success: climb from analyst to senior analyst, DBA to manager, individual contributor to director. But what if the most powerful growth happens in every other direction? This session challenges narrow career advancement definitions and introduces a practical framework for building success beyond title changes. Many technical professionals face pressure to move into management roles they don't want or feel stuck because promotions are limited. The Expansion Mindset offers an alternative. You'll explore four directions of professional growth: Depth (becoming the irreplaceable PostgreSQL performance expert), Breadth (combining SQL expertise with business intelligence and communication), Influence (shaping data architecture decisions without being the architect), and Integration (designing remote work that fits your life). Through real examples and an interactive planning activity, you'll learn to recognize growth without new titles and translate it into compensation and satisfaction. You'll leave with a personalized expansion plan and frameworks for communicating development during performance reviews and salary negotiations. Perfect for data professionals who want respect, autonomy, and fulfillment without climbing the management ladder. Whether you're a DBA seeking deep expertise or an analyst building cross-functional influence, this session provides strategy to pursue growth on your terms. -
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General Session
Unlocking AI-Assisted Database Migration: SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL
Vanshika Nigam
Amit Arora
Heterogeneous database migrations are complex. Schema incompatibilities, unsupported data types, and intricate stored procedures can stall even the most experienced teams. In this session, we explore how combining AWS DMS Schema Conversion with Generative AI and Amazon Q Developer dramatically accelerates the path PostgreSQL. We'll walk through a two-pass AI-assisted migration workflow: an automated first pass that handles fewer complex object conversions, followed by targeted Amazon Q Developer assistance for remaining action items, all while giving teams the flexibility to protect proprietary code. We'll also cover how Amazon Q Developer generates automated test cases to validate migrated code, reducing testing cycles without sacrificing quality.
General Session
Unlocking AI-Assisted Database Migration: SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL
Vanshika Nigam
Amazon Web Services
Amit Arora
Amazon Web Services
Session Goals: Attendees will leave with a practical framework for tackling heterogeneous migrations, real-world examples of schema conversion challenges , and strategies for balancing AI assistance with security requirements.
Session Prerequisites: Basic understanding of database migration and cloud.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 200
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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11:45 AM-12:45 PM
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Room: Jackson Park C
Heterogeneous database migrations are complex. Schema incompatibilities, unsupported data types, and intricate stored procedures can stall even the most experienced teams. In this session, we explore how combining AWS DMS Schema Conversion with Generative AI and Amazon Q Developer dramatically accelerates the path PostgreSQL. We'll walk through a two-pass AI-assisted migration workflow: an automated first pass that handles fewer complex object conversions, followed by targeted Amazon Q Developer assistance for remaining action items, all while giving teams the flexibility to protect proprietary code. We'll also cover how Amazon Q Developer generates automated test cases to validate migrated code, reducing testing cycles without sacrificing quality. -
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General Session
Demystifying Microsoft Fabric: Architecture and Organization 101
Chris Hyde
As with any other new technology, Microsoft Fabric comes with a host of new terms and concepts. Do you know your tenants from your capacities from your workspaces? How about your data lakes from your delta lakes and your lakehouses from your warehouses? If not, you're not alone! This session is aimed at data analysts, on-premises data professionals, managers/executives, and other tech pros struggling to understand the purpose, architecture, and organization of Fabric. We'll use plain English and not marketing-speak or technobabble to ensure all attendees have a shared understanding of this new paradigm for analytics in the Microsoft ecosystem.
General Session
Demystifying Microsoft Fabric: Architecture and Organization 101
Chris Hyde
Hydrate Consulting LLC
Session Goals: • Understand the conceptual building blocks of a modern data warehouse system. • Understand the architecture and organization of several types of Microsoft Fabric solutions. • Understand medallion architecture and its role in a Microsoft Fabric solution.
Session Prerequisites: No prior knowledge required.
Track: Analytics
Level: Level 100
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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11:45 AM-12:45 PM
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Room: Jackson Park D
As with any other new technology, Microsoft Fabric comes with a host of new terms and concepts. Do you know your tenants from your capacities from your workspaces? How about your data lakes from your delta lakes and your lakehouses from your warehouses? If not, you're not alone! This session is aimed at data analysts, on-premises data professionals, managers/executives, and other tech pros struggling to understand the purpose, architecture, and organization of Fabric. We'll use plain English and not marketing-speak or technobabble to ensure all attendees have a shared understanding of this new paradigm for analytics in the Microsoft ecosystem. -
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General Session
Governing AI Agents: Designing Skills for Control and Trust
Tyler Garner
AI agents are rapidly being introduced into data platforms, but many implementations lack the governance, observability, and control required for enterprise use. Ad hoc prompts and loosely defined tool access create systems that are difficult to audit, unsafe to scale, and unreliable in production. This session introduces a structured approach to building “skills” as governed capability units for AI agents. Rather than allowing agents unrestricted access to databases, APIs, and workflows, we define skills with clear contracts, permissions, and operational boundaries. This enables teams to standardize how agents interact with data systems while maintaining control over execution and risk. We will walk through a reference architecture that separates agent reasoning from governed execution layers, showing how skills act as the interface between AI systems and enterprise data platforms. Attendees will see how to implement policy-driven access, enforce least-privilege patterns, and instrument workflows for observability and auditability. The session also covers practical considerations for production readiness, including logging, evaluation, failure handling, and feedback loops that improve system reliability over time. Examples will demonstrate how agents can safely query data, trigger workflows, and return results without introducing opaque or unmanageable behavior.
General Session
Governing AI Agents: Designing Skills for Control and Trust
Tyler Garner
ION Storage Systems
Session Goals: • Understand how to design skills as governed interfaces for AI agents. • Learn to implement policy-driven access, observability, and auditability. • Apply patterns to transform experimental agents into controlled, production-ready systems.
Session Prerequisites: Familiarity with SQL, basic API concepts, and general understanding of AI/LLM use cases. No prior experience building AI agents is required, but attendees should be comfortable with architectural concepts and data system design patterns.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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2:30 PM-3:30 PM
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Room: Jackson Park B
AI agents are rapidly being introduced into data platforms, but many implementations lack the governance, observability, and control required for enterprise use. Ad hoc prompts and loosely defined tool access create systems that are difficult to audit, unsafe to scale, and unreliable in production. This session introduces a structured approach to building “skills” as governed capability units for AI agents. Rather than allowing agents unrestricted access to databases, APIs, and workflows, we define skills with clear contracts, permissions, and operational boundaries. This enables teams to standardize how agents interact with data systems while maintaining control over execution and risk. We will walk through a reference architecture that separates agent reasoning from governed execution layers, showing how skills act as the interface between AI systems and enterprise data platforms. Attendees will see how to implement policy-driven access, enforce least-privilege patterns, and instrument workflows for observability and auditability. The session also covers practical considerations for production readiness, including logging, evaluation, failure handling, and feedback loops that improve system reliability over time. Examples will demonstrate how agents can safely query data, trigger workflows, and return results without introducing opaque or unmanageable behavior. -
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General Session
SQL Server Versioning Explained
Bob Ward
Version store, Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR), Optimized Locking (OL), and RSCI. What do these all have in common? Versioning. In this session the mysteries of SQL Server versioning will be unlocked. You will learn the internals of how it all works, what to use and when, and examples including how to debug it. And we will bring the numbers so you will see exactly how your SQL workload will be affected by using versioning. You will walk away not just learning how things work but details to help you decide whether you should use options like ADR or OL.
General Session
SQL Server Versioning Explained
Bob Ward
Microsoft
Session Goals: • Understand how versioning works in SQL Server • Learn how using various database options control versioning and affect performance • Bust myths about how versioning can negatively affect your application
Session Prerequisites: Fundamental understanding of SQL Server.
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 300
Theme: Cloud + Multi-DB
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Friday
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2:30 PM-3:30 PM
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Room: Jackson Park D
Version store, Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR), Optimized Locking (OL), and RSCI. What do these all have in common? Versioning. In this session the mysteries of SQL Server versioning will be unlocked. You will learn the internals of how it all works, what to use and when, and examples including how to debug it. And we will bring the numbers so you will see exactly how your SQL workload will be affected by using versioning. You will walk away not just learning how things work but details to help you decide whether you should use options like ADR or OL. -
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General Session
SQL Security from Top to Bottom
Ben Johnston
Security can be a daunting topic, but it doesn't need to be. This session will go through SQL Server security at every level so you can make good decisions for your server, database, and applications. From authorization methods in SQL Server and Fabric, the difference between logins and users, methods to secure data for applications, and limiting the data surface exposed. This session will help you decide if the built-in server and database roles are sufficient for your needs or if you should create your own roles (spoiler alter – you should usually create your own roles). The session will also show methods for auditing your current security setup and using extended events to look at failed logins and other possible security concerns. I'll also share the framework I like to use to make security easy and decrease the security burden involved with deployments. Even when you don't see it, there are many layers to SQL security. This session will show you those layers and how you can use them to your advantage.
General Session
SQL Security from Top to Bottom
Ben Johnston
I-Tech Solutions, Inc.
Session Goals: • Understand SQL options for connecting to the database (authorization). • Understand how logins, users, roles and directly applied security interact. • Methods to verify security.
Session Prerequisites: • Basic TSQL skills. • No prior SQL security knowledge is needed.
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 200
Theme: Security
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Friday
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2:30 PM-3:30 PM
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Room: Hyde Park B
Security can be a daunting topic, but it doesn't need to be. This session will go through SQL Server security at every level so you can make good decisions for your server, database, and applications. From authorization methods in SQL Server and Fabric, the difference between logins and users, methods to secure data for applications, and limiting the data surface exposed. This session will help you decide if the built-in server and database roles are sufficient for your needs or if you should create your own roles (spoiler alter – you should usually create your own roles). The session will also show methods for auditing your current security setup and using extended events to look at failed logins and other possible security concerns. I'll also share the framework I like to use to make security easy and decrease the security burden involved with deployments. Even when you don't see it, there are many layers to SQL security. This session will show you those layers and how you can use them to your advantage. -
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General Session
Highlights and Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2025
Matt Gordon
With so much emphasis on cloud data platforms and AI these days, SQL people can feel left behind by all the marketing hype. SQL Server 2025 was officially released in November of 2025, though, and contains a ton of improvements that will make our SQL Server deployments a bit faster, better, and more secure. There are even more improvements tucked into the release that never made a marketing blog or press release that you'll likely be learning about for the first time in this session! Join this session to learn about what makes your high availability a little more available, your performance a bit more performant, and your database more developer and app-friendly. Come spend an hour with SQL people talking SQL Server 2025 – the good, the "not quite ready for prime time", and the hidden awesomeness.
General Session
Highlights and Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2025
Matt Gordon
Lean TECHniques
Session Goals: • Learn features in SQL Server 2025 that can improve performance right now. • Learn what AI support in SQL Server 2025 really means. • Understand features that you should be aware of, but aren't production-ready just yet.
Session Prerequisites: • Previous SQL Server knowledge helpful, but not required • Basic knowledge of concepts of relational databases
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 200
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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2:30 PM-3:30 PM
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Room: Jackson Park C
With so much emphasis on cloud data platforms and AI these days, SQL people can feel left behind by all the marketing hype. SQL Server 2025 was officially released in November of 2025, though, and contains a ton of improvements that will make our SQL Server deployments a bit faster, better, and more secure. There are even more improvements tucked into the release that never made a marketing blog or press release that you'll likely be learning about for the first time in this session! Join this session to learn about what makes your high availability a little more available, your performance a bit more performant, and your database more developer and app-friendly. Come spend an hour with SQL people talking SQL Server 2025 – the good, the "not quite ready for prime time", and the hidden awesomeness. -
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General Session
Productivity Hacks for the Modern Data Pro
Arneh Eskandari
Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
Between firefighting performance issues, managing schema changes, and supporting development teams, database professionals are stretched thin. This session is your boost of practical tips, tools, and workflows to help you get more done with less stress. We’ll explore how leading teams are simplifying repetitive tasks, improving code quality, and staying productive across hybrid environments. Plus, see how new AI-powered features can automate routine checks, suggest optimizations, and even generate realistic test data to accelerate development. Whether you're a DBA, developer, or somewhere in between, you’ll walk away with actionable ideas and a live demo of tools that make it all possible.
General Session
Productivity Hacks for the Modern Data Pro
Arneh Eskandari
Redgate
Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
Redgate
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 100
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Friday
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2:30 PM-3:30 PM
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Room: Hyde Park A
Between firefighting performance issues, managing schema changes, and supporting development teams, database professionals are stretched thin. This session is your boost of practical tips, tools, and workflows to help you get more done with less stress. We’ll explore how leading teams are simplifying repetitive tasks, improving code quality, and staying productive across hybrid environments. Plus, see how new AI-powered features can automate routine checks, suggest optimizations, and even generate realistic test data to accelerate development. Whether you're a DBA, developer, or somewhere in between, you’ll walk away with actionable ideas and a live demo of tools that make it all possible. -
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General Session
From SQL Server to PostgreSQL: Navigating the Migration Minefield
Poulami Maity
Vanshika Nigam
SQL Server and PostgreSQL share a common language, but underneath, they represent two fundamentally different philosophies. For teams modernizing legacy SQL Server applications onto PostgreSQL, real complexity hides in data types, proprietary functions, and deeply embedded patterns with no direct equivalent on the other side. This session explores the most deceptive SQL Server migration challenges, such as full-text search, hierarchical data structures, and JSON workloads, each carry their own surprises and demand fundamentally different thinking about how PostgreSQL models and indexes the same problem. We'll walk through how SQL Server's Full-Text Search capabilities translate into PostgreSQL equivalents, explore strategies for mapping hierarchical data structures to PostgreSQL's native approaches, and examine how PostgreSQL's native JSON support, including json and jsonb types and rich function library. Along the way, we'll also cover the migration patterns that show up across nearly every SQL Server project including, IDENTITY to sequence conversions, DATETIME precision and time zone semantics, etc.
General Session
From SQL Server to PostgreSQL: Navigating the Migration Minefield
Poulami Maity
Amazon Web Services
Vanshika Nigam
Amazon Web Services
Session Goals: Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of the migration patterns and challenges that surface most often in real SQL Server to PostgreSQL projects, and hard-won lessons from real enterprise migrations including real-world gotchas from SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL on AWS.
Session Prerequisites: Understanding of SQL Server concepts.
Track: Architecture
Level: Level 300
Theme: Cloud + Multi-DB
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Friday
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4:00 PM-5:00 PM
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Room: Jackson Park C
SQL Server and PostgreSQL share a common language, but underneath, they represent two fundamentally different philosophies. For teams modernizing legacy SQL Server applications onto PostgreSQL, real complexity hides in data types, proprietary functions, and deeply embedded patterns with no direct equivalent on the other side. This session explores the most deceptive SQL Server migration challenges, such as full-text search, hierarchical data structures, and JSON workloads, each carry their own surprises and demand fundamentally different thinking about how PostgreSQL models and indexes the same problem. We'll walk through how SQL Server's Full-Text Search capabilities translate into PostgreSQL equivalents, explore strategies for mapping hierarchical data structures to PostgreSQL's native approaches, and examine how PostgreSQL's native JSON support, including json and jsonb types and rich function library. Along the way, we'll also cover the migration patterns that show up across nearly every SQL Server project including, IDENTITY to sequence conversions, DATETIME precision and time zone semantics, etc. -
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General Session
Vector Defense: Engineering Reliable Search in SQL Server
Erik Darling
Vector search is rapidly becoming a core feature of modern data platforms, powering RAG, semantic search, and AI-driven applications. SQL Server 2025 brings native vector types and DiskANN indexing directly into the database engine. But vector search has a dirty secret: it fails silently. Bad data doesn't throw errors — it corrupts the index graph, blocks paths to good results, and collapses recall without warning. Your queries return confidently wrong answers, and everyone blames the AI. This session is about playing defense. We'll examine how DiskANN builds proximity graphs, why degenerate vectors act as wormholes that break greedy routing, and how 5% bad data can cause 50% recall loss. Through live demos, we'll: • Measure exact vs approximate recall to quantify the damage • Catalog the failure modes: zero vectors, overflow, staleness, model mismatch, duplicates • Build T-SQL ingestion triggers that validate before vectors enter the index • Route failures to quarantine while clean data flows through Attendees will leave with a defensive playbook: detection patterns, validation triggers, and monitoring queries that enforce vector correctness at the database layer — using skills they already have.
General Session
Vector Defense: Engineering Reliable Search in SQL Server
Erik Darling
Darling Data
Session Goals: • See how duplicate vectors silently collapse DiskANN recall. • Build T-SQL triggers that validate and quarantine bad vectors at ingestion. • Detect staleness and duplicates with content hashing — using skills you already have.
Session Prerequisites: Some knowledge about how RAG and vector search work is probably good.
Track: Development
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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4:00 PM-5:00 PM
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Room: Jackson Park B
Vector search is rapidly becoming a core feature of modern data platforms, powering RAG, semantic search, and AI-driven applications. SQL Server 2025 brings native vector types and DiskANN indexing directly into the database engine. But vector search has a dirty secret: it fails silently. Bad data doesn't throw errors — it corrupts the index graph, blocks paths to good results, and collapses recall without warning. Your queries return confidently wrong answers, and everyone blames the AI. This session is about playing defense. We'll examine how DiskANN builds proximity graphs, why degenerate vectors act as wormholes that break greedy routing, and how 5% bad data can cause 50% recall loss. Through live demos, we'll: • Measure exact vs approximate recall to quantify the damage • Catalog the failure modes: zero vectors, overflow, staleness, model mismatch, duplicates • Build T-SQL ingestion triggers that validate before vectors enter the index • Route failures to quarantine while clean data flows through Attendees will leave with a defensive playbook: detection patterns, validation triggers, and monitoring queries that enforce vector correctness at the database layer — using skills they already have. -
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General Session
Real Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric: From Events to Action
Jeremy Nathan
Organizations increasingly need to respond to data as it happens, not hours or days later. Microsoft Fabric introduces a unified approach to real time analytics, bringing streaming ingestion, event processing, analytics, and visualization together in a single platform. In this session, we’ll explore how real time data flows through Microsoft Fabric, from event ingestion to analytics and action. You’ll learn how Fabric supports streaming scenarios using Event Streams, KQL based analytics, real time tables, and Power BI real time visuals, and how these components work together within OneLake. Rather than focusing on isolated features, this talk provides a clear architectural view of how to design real time solutions in Fabric, when real time analytics makes sense, and how it differs from traditional batch based BI. We’ll also discuss common patterns such as monitoring, alerting, operational dashboards, and near real time decision making. By the end of the hour, you’ll understand how to evaluate real time use cases, how Fabric enables them end to end, and how to start building real time analytics solutions that are reliable, scalable, and aligned with modern data architectures.
General Session
Real Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric: From Events to Action
Jeremy Nathan
JN Training, Inc
Session Goals: • Understand how real‑time analytics works in Microsoft Fabric, from event ingestion to visualization. • Identify when to use real‑time or near‑real‑time analytics versus batch BI. • Apply practical guidance for designing scalable, reliable real‑time solutions in Fabric.
Session Prerequisites: Attendees should have a general understanding of data analytics concepts and familiarity with Power BI or SQL‑based analytics. Basic awareness of Microsoft Fabric or cloud data platforms is helpful but not required.
Track: Analytics
Level: Level 300
Theme: AI + Data
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Friday
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4:00 PM-5:00 PM
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Room: Hyde Park B
Organizations increasingly need to respond to data as it happens, not hours or days later. Microsoft Fabric introduces a unified approach to real time analytics, bringing streaming ingestion, event processing, analytics, and visualization together in a single platform. In this session, we’ll explore how real time data flows through Microsoft Fabric, from event ingestion to analytics and action. You’ll learn how Fabric supports streaming scenarios using Event Streams, KQL based analytics, real time tables, and Power BI real time visuals, and how these components work together within OneLake. Rather than focusing on isolated features, this talk provides a clear architectural view of how to design real time solutions in Fabric, when real time analytics makes sense, and how it differs from traditional batch based BI. We’ll also discuss common patterns such as monitoring, alerting, operational dashboards, and near real time decision making. By the end of the hour, you’ll understand how to evaluate real time use cases, how Fabric enables them end to end, and how to start building real time analytics solutions that are reliable, scalable, and aligned with modern data architectures. -
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General Session
Always On Availability Groups and Failover Clustering Internals
Edwin M Sarmiento
Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) is the platform that makes SQL Server Always On Availability Groups highly available. There are external interactions between WSFC and SQL Server that you as a DBA cannot monitor from within SQL Server. You need to know the different components that make up the WSFC and how they work to properly deploy and manage Always On Availability Groups for high availability. In this session, you will dive into the internals of the WSFC, the SQL Server cluster resource DLL, and how they work together to make your SQL Server databases highly available. You will analyze the cluster error log for identifying the root cause of an unexpected or planned failover. Finally, you will learn administrative tasks that you're not supposed to do outside of SQL Server.
General Session
Always On Availability Groups and Failover Clustering Internals
Edwin M Sarmiento
15C
Session Goals: • Learn the interaction between SQL Server and the Windows Server Failover Cluster to achieve high availability. • Avoid performing administrative tasks that jeopardizes availability of SQL Server databases. • How to use the cluster error log with SQL Server logs to troubleshoot availability issues.
Session Prerequisites: Attendees should have experience deploying SQL Server Always On Availability Groups on Windows Server Failover Clusters
Track: Database Management
Level: Level 400
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Friday
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4:00 PM-5:00 PM
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Room: Jackson Park D
Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) is the platform that makes SQL Server Always On Availability Groups highly available. There are external interactions between WSFC and SQL Server that you as a DBA cannot monitor from within SQL Server. You need to know the different components that make up the WSFC and how they work to properly deploy and manage Always On Availability Groups for high availability. In this session, you will dive into the internals of the WSFC, the SQL Server cluster resource DLL, and how they work together to make your SQL Server databases highly available. You will analyze the cluster error log for identifying the root cause of an unexpected or planned failover. Finally, you will learn administrative tasks that you're not supposed to do outside of SQL Server. -
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Keynote
Redgate Keynote: The Data Professional of the Future
Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
Steve Jones
G-Su Paek
The data professional of 2026 might be a career database expert…or simply the closest thing your organization has to a data professional. The database landscape has never been more complex, and the modern data professional is tasked with balancing shifting platform trends and emerging technology like AI with the ever-present need to keep databases and the data they contain secure – in an era when organizational pressure to deliver value from data is stronger and more persistent than it’s ever been. In this session you’ll learn more about the pressures and challenges faced by the data professional of today, as well as trusted advice on how to navigate today’s and tomorrow’s database landscape, no matter where you are on your professional journey.
Keynote
Redgate Keynote: The Data Professional of the Future
Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
Redgate
Steve Jones
Redgate
G-Su Paek
Redgate
Track: Professional Development
Level: Level 100
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Room: TBD
The data professional of 2026 might be a career database expert…or simply the closest thing your organization has to a data professional. The database landscape has never been more complex, and the modern data professional is tasked with balancing shifting platform trends and emerging technology like AI with the ever-present need to keep databases and the data they contain secure – in an era when organizational pressure to deliver value from data is stronger and more persistent than it’s ever been. In this session you’ll learn more about the pressures and challenges faced by the data professional of today, as well as trusted advice on how to navigate today’s and tomorrow’s database landscape, no matter where you are on your professional journey. -